Montana Vacation 1997. 

The plane was late coming in from Detroit and Newark was a mess because of thunderstorms in the mid-west. We were delayed at least two hours on take-off and when we got to Minneapolis, the connection for Billings was gone. Northwest booked us on the first flight to Billings in the AM and put us up at the Thunderbird Hotel-across the road from mall of America.

We arrived in Billings at 10:00 AM. All in all the loss of the connection did not hurt too much as by the time we would have had breakfast and all we would have been only about one to two hours ahead. After checking into the motel we went to:

Little Big Horn on July 4th. This is a very interesting site if you have read anything about the Indian Wars. Custer was massacred here. The talks at the visitor center are not one sided and there are Indian interpreters working for the park service as well. The next time we come we are going to take the Indian Tour.

Pompey's Pillar -Limestone formation that has William J. Clarks signature carved in it. The signature is under glass as there have been attempts to vandalize it. There are many native Indian pictographs here also in various stages of disrepair.

Fireworks in Laurel - said to be the biggest in Montana. They were great except for the laser light show. On the way back to the car we were behind someone who was carrying a kitchen chaiur home from the fireworks.

Outside of Laurel there was a billboard advertising a go go place called "Shotgun Willies"

The girl advertising is depicted in a skimpy bikini in cowboy boots. The sign says gentlemens club and "This ain't no petting zoo." There were protests about this sign in the local papers. More later.

Saturday, July 5, Billings to Red Lodge

In the AM we went to the Chief Black Otter Trail at the Rimrocks Park. This area has a lot of historical information about Yellowstone Kelly-born in Brooklyn and other western heroes and not so much heroes.

Then we went to the Moss Mansion which was a turn of the century house built by a local wealthy businessman.

Then we drove to Red Lodge, Montana-filled with little gift shops and a quaint little town.

We called for reservations at 2:00 pm for dinner at the Grizzly Bar which is 30 miles north of Red Lodge in Roscoe, Mt. They hand out bumper stickers-"Where in the Hell is Roscoe?" We were able to get a 9:00 pm seating.

There were interesting roadside markers relating to the Old Crow Indian agency. As a result of the Crow's helping the army against the Sioux, they were given more land close to Little Big Horn.

We drove the 53 mile drive over the Beartooth Highway. It took us about 6 hours to do it as we kept stopping to view the sights, talk to some skiers who were taking turns shuttling each other up and down a portion of the mountain. I took a hike over a snow field close to the top. There was a lot of snow left on the ground. The ski lifts at the avelanche training school were still running. An amazing sight. The pass is at 10947 feet. We had all four seasons this day-summer in Red Lodge and on most of the trip up. On the other side of the mountain we ran into a thunderstorm and then a sleet storm and then some snow. The most interesting thing was that we saw a moose at about the 7-8000 foot level. What she was doing up there, I couldn't figure out. The Beartooth is a must.

We left Cooke City early as we wanted to spend most of the day in Yellowstone. After we entered through the Northeast entrance and drove through the Lamar Valley(beautiful meadows) we saw a lot of cars pulled over and looking into a field. They were watching wolves working on a herd of elk and trying to separate some small ones from the herd. The elk weren't selling. With binoculars you could make out the wolves-looked like dogs in the distance. At one point you could hear a wolf call from the other side of the road.

The ranger asked everyone to move to enable the wolf to re-join the pack in the hunt.

We moved on. We drove to the falls area and spent an hour or so there. Then on to the Norris basin and Mamoth Hot Springs and then on to Livingston. It was quite a day.

In the very late afternoon we went to the railroad museum in Livingston..

We drove to Virginia City/Nevada City on the Alder River. which is a semi-ghost town. We stayed in the local hotel- the Fairchild-old but interesting-no AC. The town is all under rehabilitation and the downtown was bought up by an individual and then turned over to the state as a historical town. This was a gold town. Up on Boot Hill are five marked graves of 5 not so good guys hung by the vigilantes all on the same day.

Nevada City is next to Virginia City and also is set up as a historical re-creation. The difference is that in Virginia City the buildings are as they were when they were left while Nevada City has re-creations and moved buildings in it.

In the evening we went to the Virginia City Players presentation of Sweeny Todd, The mad barber. It was advertised as a melodrama with expected audience participation but the actors couldn't or wouldn't get the crowd into it.

We drove to Great Falls Montana with a stop at Helena to visit the Cathedral in Helena.

At Great Falls we visited the Charles M. Russell art museum. Charles Russell was a great western artist who lived the life he painted. The museum is spectacular.

We also drove to the Giant spring which is below the Great Falls. The giant spring has its origins about 50 miles from Great falls and it was written that the water takes about 100 years from the time it starts out to get to the spring. It is huge.

We played poker at a small video casino and it took us about one hour to loose a buck.

This was a great ride as we had planned to drive along the Rocky Mountain Front and see the mountains about 50 to 100 miles away from us. Very scenic. Talked to a cowboy near Augusta. He was working on a fence. His horse was a 4 wheel ATV. We arrived in Glacier at around 4:00 pm and checked into the many Glacier Inn. It was cold this evening. The wind was whistling thru the windows.

We visited the Canadian side of Glacier national park. We drove up to a lake where it is written that winter conditions exist for 9 months of the year. I believed them-we were freezing even though we had coats. The Prince of Whales hotel is spectacular and nice to visit. Too rich for my pocketbook to stay there though. At a local shop I wanted a Cigar.

They wanted $35.00 for it Canadian. Still $20.00 US is too much. No smoke.

Today we went to the Great Plains Indian Days celebration in Browning. In the afternoon and evening they held ceremonial dances to the beat of giant drums played by about 4 to 6 individuals. The costumes were beautiful and the spectacle was interesting to see. The ceremonies were for Indians. The people we talked to were friendly and courteous but from all that we read about the event it is not really intended as a "tourist event" to see how much money can be brought into town.

We explored the Going to the Sun Road which is the only road that crosses the park. Logan pass is the summit. This was a spectacular day. We saw a mountain goat at the visitors center eating the flowers we were forbidden to step on. He was big and only a few feet away from us. We saw Big-horn sheep. A brown bear strolling casually down a trail.

Later in the evening we got a look at a Grizzly through a real powerful telescope- he was about 3 miles up the mountain on the other side of the lake.

This was a pleasant ride except for the ride through Kallispel which was a big traffic jam. The rest of the ride was through scenic country along Flathead Lake. Very pretty.

Tuesday, July 15, Wallace

Wallace is an old mining town. We took a tour of the silver mine which is operated for tourists. We took a ride over to the Cataldo Mission which is now a historic site. It was built in the 1850's as a mission to the Nez Perce Indians. The mission building is interesting and has hand carved statues carved by the priests-very nice work. The chandeliers for the candles were cut out of tin cans from food. Impressive. We also visited Murray, Idaho which was a rough and tumble mining town. During a cholera outbreak one of the local prostitutes was the only person who would tend to the sick. She became a heroine -she was called- Molly Be Damned. Her grave is in the town cemetery.

We also went to the Oasis Bordello Museum It was a house of prostitution right in the middle of town. The amazing thing is that it was in operation until 1988 when the FBI raided it after a two year investigation. They caught no-one as they had been tipped off. It was around the corner from the police station and the chief of police was quoted as saying that he suspected something was going on but he didn't know where. The madam is said to have provided uniforms for the local high school band and was well thought of in town. The woman leading the tour thru the house was nervous about speaking the "oldest profession.".

In the evening to celebrate my birthday we went to the 6th street melodrama to see a real western melodrama about the villain and the poor girl who was going to lose her home.

The actors really got the crowd into it and it was such a change from Virginia City. We had laughs all evening long. On of the actresses was hamming it up and I yelled-"what a great actress" she responded with "Thank you, Thank you thank you." The secon half of the program was a bunch of comedy skits and then all of a sudden they said- we have a birthday in the crowd sitting in-they gave my seat number. They sang happy birthday to me and the women/girls in the show came and gave me a kiss. Embarrassing but fun.

We had to start back towards Billings. We stopped at the Nine Mile Ranger Station close to Huson, Mt. The ranger station kept mules for firefighting purposes. This was apretty spot and we took a hike thru the woods. Peaceful except for the sonic boom that went over us from an AF jet. We also stopped at Three Rivers State park where three rivers join to form the mighty Missouri. The historical plaques here are interesting. We also went to a Buffalo Jump which is an area where Indians before they had horses, would herd Buffalo over a cliff. Interesting site.

In the evening we toured Butte on a trolley tour. We went to see the big polluted open pit mine which is filling up with water from groundwater seeping up thru the abandoned mine shafts. It is all acid and they don't know yet what they will do when it fills to the top in about 15 years.

We drove over to the Big Hole battlefield through a great valley which is famous for hay for the cattle feed. Big Hole is in a marshy area and is infested with mosquitoes. They had a ball on us. The Nez Perce were attacked here and they won the battle. However a few days later the whole band was stopped 40 miles short of Canada where they were trying to flee. The saddest part of the affair is that some of the women in the group had been young girls among the people that helped Lewis and Clark in their journey to the ocean. Without help from the Nez Perce, Lewis and Clark wouldn't have made it. At the surrender Chief Joseph is said to have quoted "I shall fight no more forever"

We had to go back down to Red Lodge as the wife had seen something in a store when we were there two weeks ago and hell hath no fury like a woman spurned from shopping.

Stopped at the Grizzly Bar to get some bumper sticklers which are now stuck in my garage.

Dinner at Jalisco's in Billings. Great Mexican restaurant with a Mariachi group walking around the tables and taking requests. They were called Los Diamantes del Norte. Diamonds of the North. They were really good.

The Shotgun Willies sign was destroyed by bible toting vandals. It seems that while we were touring the state the legality of the sign had been under review by a local magistrate. When he ruled freedom of speech, the sign all of a sudden became covered with splotches of paint. Thus was written in the local paper.

In the morning there was a craft show which we visited before heading to the airport at 1:00 pm for our flight home. This was a spectacular trip.

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